A replica of one of the train engines that carried the body of Abraham Lincoln to Columbus and
then to his resting spot in Illinois will not be displayed
as
scheduled at the Ohio Statehouse on Thursday.

Both a lack of money and a lack of time to acquire permits for road transportation of the
Leviathan 63 engine replica led to the cancellation of the display, said Bill Werst, executive
director of a Lincoln-related nonprofit.

About $2,000 donated to help bring the steam-engine replica to the Statehouse next week will
go toward bringing it to Columbus next year as part of a 150th-anniversary re-enactment of Lincoln’s
funeral train tour, he said yesterday.

Werst said up to $9,000 was needed to display the engine on the Statehouse grounds next week.
Also, organizers did not have the time needed to secure permits to move the oversized, overweight
engine via highways.

Werst, a native of Springfield, Ohio, who lives in Elgin, Ill., is executive director of the
2015 Lincoln Funeral Train project, a nonprofit group planning an event that spans seven states and
uses no government funding.

Organizers also are working on building a replica of the funeral car that carried the
assassinated president’s body by rail. Lincoln’s body lay in state in the Statehouse rotunda on
April 29, 1865, before the train continued its journey.

The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board is planning an observance of the anniversary of
Lincoln’s death and the display of his body at the Statehouse for next year.